Inclusion Pathways CEO Ross Yellin, center, before Monday night’s planning board meeting. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A “robotics-themed” training restaurant for special-needs adults won approval to convert a large building in downtown Red Bank Monday night.
A 2019 view of he former home of Hobbymasters store. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
The borough planning board granted unanimous OK, including a parking variance, to the owner of 62 White Street, the former Hobbymasters space, for a change-of-use from retail to allow for a “multipurpose training café for individuals with special needs,” according to the agenda description.
That’s where Inclusion Pathways, a for-profit company created by Ross Yellin of Manalapan, plans to “provide an environment where individuals with special needs can live independently and get all the services they need,” according to its website.
Those services include setting up clients in apartments, locating job opportunities and teaching life skills. The wesbite says the company “will house individuals with special needs at local apartment complexes in downtown Redbank, New Jersey and provide them with the support that they need.”
Yellin, it says, “utilized his own personal experience overcoming his own disabilities to help other people to overcome their challenges.”
The plan for 62 White Street calls for instructional spaces, a retail space and second-floor offices.
One part of the two-story, 9,300-square-foot building will be used as the Robo Café, where clients and the general public can socialize over board games, karaoke, trivia matches and more.
The café will provide training in food preparation from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekdays, Yellin told the board. The public would be able to patronize the business after 3 p.m. on weekdays and from 10 a.m to 8 p.m. on weekends.
“The idea is to bring people in, possibly give them a small meal,” said attorney John Anderson. “It’s more snacks, light fare, not a full-service type of thing.”
Adjoining the 28-seat eatery will be retail and “maker space” to sell games and other tools used to help train special-needs individuals, architect Mike Simpson told the board.
The company’s “prime revenue” won’t be from restaurant sales but from Medicaid and “billing for some special services that they give, Anderson said. And because Inclusion Pathways is a for-profit entity, “the property stays on the tax rolls,” he said.
“There’s really not another model like it,” Simpson said. “The hope is that this becomes one that will be very successful that can be taken elsewhere.”
Yellin said the building is appealing “not because we anticipate to fill up the space” with people “but because we like to have a variety of things going on. That’s why this is a perfect set-up for us.”
The building, opposite the White Street municipal parking lot, was home to the gamer’s paradise known as Hobbymasters for four decades before the store closed in early 2020. It’s now owned by Philip J. Bowers & Company, which has extensive real estate holdings in the area.
Three years ago, Trap Door Escape Room, located in an abutting building, announced plans to expand into 62 White and create America’s largest “escape room” entertainment facility. But the tenancy was short-lived, landlord John Bowers told redbankgreen. Trap Door’s owner did not respond to a request for information.
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